Violet Simple Syrup! Perfect in cocktails or mocktails, or even in sparkling water. Perfect for special gatherings like Mothers Day, Bridal Showers or Weddings. Romantic, floral & feminine. The possibilities are endless!
Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. ~ Mark Twain
My little friend Dylan helped me pick violets this morning. Their sweet, grape-scented blossoms are unbelievably fragrant and are sprouting up everywhere this spring. An easy way to capture their lovely essence is to make Violet Simple Syrup from their petals.
The violet simple syrup can then be then added to lemonade or sparkling water for a refreshing spring drink, or turned into my favorite – a Violet infused French 75 – with gin, champagne, and lemon juice. A gorgeous, subtly-colored, feminine cocktail, perfect for Mother’s day, bridal showers or weddings. ‘Tis the season!
Dylan’s mother, and my dear friend, Cheri, made this Violet Simple Syrup the other day and I immediately fell in love with it and knew I had to share it with you. Not only for its beautiful color, taste and fragrance, but for the simple fact that these violets are everywhere, growing wild in our lawns, and how mostly, they go unnoticed, crushed beneath our feet.
Here’s a way to celebrate them and bring them into our kitchens and let them infuse our everyday lives with their extraordinary loveliness.
And husbands, if you made this for your wives, perhaps for mother’s day (just an idea) I promise, this would be the one thing they would never ever forget. The sweetest gesture that would give them years and years of happy memories.
It starts with picking the violets. Be sure the flowers have not been sprayed or fed with any chemicals.
Gather a few cupfuls, removing the stems and calyx if need be.
VIOLETS: There are different kinds of violets. These COMMON BLUE VIOLETS are from Eastern Washington and have a very small calyx (the green part that holds the petals) and sweet grape smell.
If unsure please try this page for identification.
You are looking for WILD violets with the botanical name of Viola sororia or Viola sororia albiflora. The kind that grow in you lawn in zones 3-8. They typically have a little bit of gold in the center.
Be sure to inhale and really smell them!
For the most vibrant color and grapy flavor -remove as many stems and leaves as you possibly can.
How to Make Violet Simple Syrup:
- Pick any green stems leaves off the violets (see notes)
- Boil FILTERED water in a small pot. Turn the heat off, let water stand 5-10 minutes to cool- then add the violets to the pot, stir, and let sit for 24 hours.
- Strain the violet infused water through a fine-mesh sieve, gently pressing any additional liquid from the violets.
- For every cup of liquid yielded, add 2 cups of sugar.
- Stir over a bain-marie or in the same pot over very low heat until the sugar dissolves. Be careful not to boil as you will lose the gorgeous color of the violets.
- Stir in a little lemon juice, a drop at a time (5-10 drops) to turn the infusion to more of a clear purple color (Alternatively- if you prefer the cool blue color, leave the lemon juice out.)
- Store the syrup in a bottle or jar in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
- This makes about 2 cups of syrup.
For the perfect Mother’s Day, wedding day or bridal shower cocktail, make a Violet-infused French 75.
Fill a shaker with ice, add one-ounce gin, ½ ounce lemon juice and ½ ounce violet simple syrup. Shake well and strain into a chilled flute or cocktail coupe. Top with chilled Champagne or Prosecco and garnish with a lemon twist and a fresh-picked violet.
Swoon.
Cheers!
xoxoxo
Violet Simple Syrup
Violet Simple Syrup! Perfect in cocktails ( like a Violet infused French 75) or mocktails. Think Mothers Day, Bridal Showers or Weddings. Romantic, floral & feminine. The possibilities are endless! WARNING: Please read through all the comments below the post before you begin- some folks are having a hard time with this recipe turning out and I’m still unclear why- so before you make it, make sure you are picking Common Blue Violets.(They should smell sweet and grape-y) If unsure please try this page for identification. You are looking for WILD violets with the botanical name of Viola sororia or Viola sororia albiflora. The kind that grown in shady parts of your lawn in zones 3-8. They typically have a little bit of gold in the center. Make sure they are untreated with pesticides!!!
- Prep Time: 24 hours
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 24 hours 15 mins
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: cocktails, drinks, sauce
- Method: infused
- Cuisine: northwest
Ingredients
- 3–4 cups violets, loosely packed, green leaves, stems and calyx (if large) removed (see notes)
- 1 cup FILTERED water, boiled, cooled for 5–10 minutes
- ——-
- 2 cups granulated sugar, white
- a squeeze of lemon- optional ( see notes)
Instructions
- Bring 1 cup of filtered water to a simmer in a small pot. Turn the heat off, let the water stand 5 minutes to cool slightly, then add the violets to the pot, stir, and let cool completely. (Do NOT boil the violets.) Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand for at least 24 hours on the kitchen counter.
- Strain the violet infused water through a fine-mesh sieve, gently pressing any additional liquid from the violets. Return strained Violette water to a bain-marie. Add sugar. For every cup of liquid yielded, add 1 1/2 – 2 cups of sugar.
- Stir sugar into the violet water over a bain-marie or in the same pot over very very low heat, just until the sugar dissolves.
- DO NOT SIMMER or BOIL as you will lose the gorgeous color of the violets. Just warm enough to dissolve the sugar. You should have a beautiful cool blue-hued syrup.
- Optional: To turn the syrup to more of a clear purple color as you see here, stir in just a little lemon juice, one drop at a time (5-10 drops) or if you prefer the cool blue hue, leave the lemon out!
- Store the syrup in a bottle or jar in the refrigerator for up to 6 months.
- Makes about 2 cups of violet simple syrup.
Notes
VIOLETS: There are different kinds of voilets. I live in Eastern Washington and here they have very small calyx (the green part that holds the petals) compared to the petals. I didn’t remove all of them, but if your voilets have a large calyx (compared to the petal size) best to remove! They can turn the lovely blue purple color to brown, and give the syrup a “green” spinachy taste. The flowers alone will give the syrup a lovely grape-y floral taste. So take your time here and be patient, removing all the green! Also read all the comments below the post.
To make a Violet Infused French 75 : In a shaker fill with ice, add one ounce gin, ½ ounce lemon juice and 1/2 ounce violet simple syrup. Shake well and strain into a chilled flute or cocktail coupe. Top with chilled Champagne or Prosecco and garnish with lemon twist and a fresh picked violet.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 tablespoon
- Calories: 48
Keywords: violet recipes, recipes using violets, violet simple syrup, simple syrup recipes, best simple syrup recipe, simple syrup,
Turned mine brown with Demura sugar. oops!
★★★★★
I made this with wild violets (purple) and the water was a lovely violet shade when I strained out the petals. I was making dinner at the same time and my water sat longer than a few minutes– more like 15-20. It was still hot, but not nearly boiling? I used granulated sugar. Thank you for sharing!
Glad it worked! Thanks!
I am growing violets in my backyard garden and don’t have a large enough harvest yet to make syrup. Is there a way you recommend storing the picked flowers until I have enough to make the syrup? (For instance, in the fridge, or allowing them to dry on a mesh rack?) thank you!
Store in a ziplock, with a damp paper towel in the fridge.
Yeah, mine is brown and smells mostly of sugar, vinegar, water.
Vinegar? Oh dear.
I’m wondering if those who had trouble with this used cane sugar instead of granulated sugar? That is what I used and instead of a bright purple (which the liquid was before adding the cane sugar) I have a beautiful mauve and this is with the addition of lemon. I’m going to try this again with granulated sugar and see if that makes the difference. Thank you for the recipe!
★★★★★
Oh interesting! Never thought of that but I get what you are saying! I bet it does make a slight difference?
Hello!! I have not yet made the recipe, but the issues some people seem to be having may be down to the type of violet- there are several, and sweet violets (used here) differ from dog violets, which are a bit more blue. Not an expert, but I’d research the differences before carrying out the recipe!
THANK YOU SO MUCH. This is very helpful- I was wondering how we could end up such differing results. Do you know how to tell the difference?
I wonder if the trouble some folks are having is due to the type of violet being used. There are fragrant violets and non-fragrant varieties. I don’t know enough to elaborate, but maybe a plant person could confirm or deny my hypothesis.
Thanks- I’m starting to think this IS the issue.
I wonder if the trouble some folks are having is due to the type of violet being used. There are fragrant violets and non-fragrant varieties. I don’t know enough to elaborate, but maybe a plant person could confirm or deny my hypothesis.
I have made this twice now and both have had disappointing results. The first time my liquid was brown and I chalked it up to not removing the green parts. So I started all over, Spent a long time picking violets once again, and meticulously (and tediously) removing every one. I boiled the water, removed from heat for 5 minutes, and let set 24 hours. My liquid was brown yet again. I had about 2-3 cups of violets and 1 cup of water. 1 and 1/2 cups sugar. Lemon juice did not clear the liquid either. I don’t understand where I went wrong. Help! I really wanted this to work!
Oh no! I’m so sorry Tiffany! Very frustrating. So you added the violets after you let the water cool a bit? It sounds like you did everything right and it should have worked? I can’t figure it out. I’m curious where you live and if the violets are different there?
I LOVE this! Perfect spring activity during Covid19 Stay at Home time. Gorgeous results. Appreciated other people’s comments about not letting water covering fresh violets be too hot. Plus was astonished at the instantaneous transformation of cloudy blue syrup to clear purple syrup with addition of a few drops of lemon juice (about 10 drops in 2 cups of syrup.) Can’t wait until I can get together again with friends and make those Violet Infused French 75 Cocktails!
★★★★★
I followed this exactly and it did not work. 😕
Oh no! What happened?
The thing I’ve been running into the past two years is that the water, steeped 24 hours in fresh violets, has a boiled veggie smell to it that is equal to, or overwhelms the violet smell. I think my error is from using boiling water, rather than water that is 5 mins cooled after boiling. I’m going to try to find more violets today and run this experiment again.
Yes, the water cool a bit. If you do test this Larry, can you get a water temp for us and post it here? I would really appreciate it.
Thanks for sharing this! Excited to try it with all the violets growing in my yard. I love the swing top bottle in tour photo – can you tell me where they came from?
Cost Plus Work Market
With all this time on our hands my kids and I picked violets yesterday. The syrup came out perfect.
★★★★★
Great to hear!
A lovely addition to our cocktails. Turned out perfectly. FYI I did let the flowers sit 36 hours before adding the sugar.
★★★★★
I just made this and it is absolutely beautiful. It smells like grape candy and is the loveliest color. I added 3-4 drops lemon juice and it was perfect.
★★★★★
Worst recipe .. I spent a lot of time picking violets yesterday and was really excited about this recipe .. but you tell people to boil water and then add the flowers. I did what you said, picked all the stems and leaves off, and the liquid has a horrible green tinge. I then posted on an edible plants forum and they told me I shouldn’t have used boiled water because it is too hot. You should amend your recipe.
I’m very sorry about that, I understand your frustration. A lot of work, I know. I will make the recipe a little more clear.
Do you just steel the petals in non-boiled water then?
Steep in hot (but not boiling) water, yes.
This turned out so pretty and fragrant. Have been using in Sparkling water.
★★★★★
Sylvia, I want to try this but am unsure as to whether it keeps for a year or 6mo.? It says both in the description. Also can you freeze the water? Thanks in advance.
I have adjusted the recipe to 6 months- sorry about that and thanks for catching. I have not frozen the violetwater, sorry I don’t know the answer to that.
I am so glad you shared the violet recipe. I find it has such power with its energetic properties and to be able to use it as a syrup, well all I can say is that tops the cake.
Thankyou for your wonderful recipes.
Joan Sorita
Animal Aromatherapist
Washington
Thanks Joan~ appreciate this. Would love to hear more about its energetic properties! Do tell!!!
There is an etsy shop using your photos, I believe.
thanks I will look. 🙂
HELP!!!
I harvested 6 cups of violets from my yard and removed the stems, but didn’t remove the calyx (green base). other than that I followed your instructions to the letter. Is the syrup supposed to smell or be reminiscent of the actual Violet fragrance? Unfortunately, my simple syrup smells like spinach instead of violets! Is this due to the green calyxes?? How do you remove such tiny pieces of an already tiny flower?
Please advise and thanks!
★★★★★
Oh no! yes, I think I removed most of them them. Time consuming! The syrup should smell very grape-y. Not green at all!
OMG I had this issue too! It smells like broccoli. And now I have a gorgeous blue broccoli sugar syrup hahahaha. I de-stemmed all of them carefully, but left the little green butts. Maybe we need to snip the little green butts off and use petals only?
Oh no! I just added mine to the water and didn’t remove that. I hope I didn’t waste all these flowers and time spent. Plus it is almost 3 cups of flowers and one cup of water so most flowers aren’t even touching the water. Feeling like maybe I’ve wasted my time.
If the calyx are large (compared to the petals) try to remove them. I would… sorry. If they are very tiny, you may be ok. 🙂
Truly amazing food chemistry here. So fun to watch how the syrup changes with different steps. I found the syrup too sweet for the cocktails I was mixing and detracted some from the violet flavor and color, so I suggest dialing it back some on the sugar.
★★★★
Thanks for making my recipe for Violet Syrup and also for giving credit back to the original recipe too! I love your photos and am pleased to see that my recipe turned out for you so well! Now to enjoy it in drinks, cocktails, cakes and bakes! Karen from Lavender and Lovage
Beautiful and I love violets. And champagne. I’m jealous you have them growing everywhere I would have no idea where to find them. Here in Texas.
Thanks. They like to grown in lawns…I would look there first, although the season for them is probably over.
Such a beautiful color, wow! This will add so much pizazz to a drink!
Thanks Mary! So delicious in a drink.